I was recently interviewed by Brett LogGuirato of Fusion about Utah’s legislation to reinstate the firing squad as a method of execution. LoGuirato wrote,

Marc Hyden considers Utah’s reintroduction of the firing squad as an “act of desperation”

He continued,

“They’re running out of ways to kill people properly, and they’re running to something that was used pretty long ago,” Hyden, the national coordinator of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, told Fusion on Thursday.

Hyden, whose group aims to frame opposition to the death penalty in a conservative light, has a point.

LoGuirato said,

“What we’re seeing is a lot of states experimenting with brand new experimental drug combinations that are untested,” Hyden said.

That experimentation has been supplanted with alternate roads — some of which border on the extreme. Last year, Tennessee became the first state to mandate use of the electric chair in executions if lethal drugs are unavailable. Then came Utah and the firing squad.